


hold me fast and fear me not

by poodlesandsucculents



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, F/F, Fairies, Fairy Tale Retellings, Hunters & Hunting, Minor Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2017-10-29
Packaged: 2019-01-26 10:38:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12555608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poodlesandsucculents/pseuds/poodlesandsucculents
Summary: Root placed a hand on Sameen’s waist and Sameen’s hand went to the grip of her sword, but the fairy just reached past and plucked a rose from the bushes behind her. She held it between them for a moment, the petals just brushing Sameen’s chin. Still holding her gaze, Root tucked the flower into a fastening of Sameen's coat, the red burning dark against the green. “You should visit me again sometime,” she said with a wide, dangerous smile.(The Root/Shaw Tam Lin AU no one asked for)





	hold me fast and fear me not

 

Sameen had been in the village of Bishop all day. Harold sent her to slay a minor dragon, which was bad enough, but first she had needed to talk to people about it, which was worse. Grateful villagers offered her a bed for the night and begged her to share a meal, but Sameen refused, knowing that “a meal” meant a night of revelry, hugs from smelly old men and smellier small children, and also more talking. She half regretted that instinct now that she was on the road back to the castle, and decided that if she did not find something to eat she was going to slaughter the next fellow traveler she met on the way.

Turning her horse from the path just past the Miles Cross crossroads, Sameen strung her bow and began scanning the moor for the dark shadow of a nice, fat grouse or rabbit to mar the late winter snow. She spotted a grouse near the forest’s edge, and let an arrow fly. The bird rose with a squawk as the arrow hit it, nicking the wing, but missing the body.

“Crap,” Sameen said as she watched the bird flutter into the trees. She urged her horse forward, right up to the treeline. There he stopped, neck tensing up and ears twitching. In the shade several yards away, Sameen could glimpse the movement of the grouse struggling on the forest floor, its wounded wing now too weak to fly. The woods were Carterhaugh, which no mortal was to enter. The Bishop villagers had believed their dragon came from these woods, and were eager to tell Sameen all about its many horrors--the rabid wolves, the poisoned water, the children who disappeared there and were never seen again.

“Fuck it,” Sameen said. She tied her nervous horse to a low branch, and strode inside.

As she passed beyond the first trees, she could feel the change in the air. It was warmer, no snow had filtered through to the ground, and beneath the scent of pine and earth there was something wild and floral. The grouse had come to rest at the edge of a little clearing, where the small gap in the trees allowed the sunlight to illuminate a stand of rose bushes, growing wild. That was what she smelled when she first entered the wood, she realized. Roses. This far in, the air was thick with it. Sameen did not stop to admire the strange flowers, but went straight to the dying bird and snapped its neck.

“Shall I break  _ your  _ neck, then?”

Sameen held up her hands, still clutching the grouse in the right, and turned slowly to find herself face-to-face with a sword. Behind it was a woman. The sword and the woman effused a thin aura of white light that seemed to twist and writhe at the edges. “Shit.”

“Who are you, to dare enter Carterhaugh and break its laws?” The fairy asked.

“Sameen,” she answered, “a knight of the realm.”

“Do you know the price of slaying any creature in these woods?”

The fairy was smiling. Sameen didn’t like it. “Uh, promising not to do it again?”

The fairy surged forward, forcing Sameen against a tree, the sword now held against her throat.

Sameen swallowed, and felt the steel nick her skin. “Something else, I’m guessing,” she whispered.

“It’s death,” the fairy said.

Sameen glanced down at the blade. “Yeah, that was my second guess.” Quick, her hands flew up and she shoved the woman’s wrist away with her left, pushed the grouse into the sword with the right, and ducked away, drawing her own in time to block the fairy’s strike. “Look, it’s not even your bird, okay? I shot it outside on the moor. Not my fault it limped in here.”

“Any creature killed in Carterhaugh is mine to avenge.”

“I’m telling you, the thing was already dying. I just put it out of its misery.”

“Hunters are all the same; death follows you everywhere. You have no respect for innocent life.”

“What, so you’re going to kill me? Don’t you think that’s kind of hypocritical? It’s a  _ bird. _ ”

“Why did you kill it,” the fairy demanded.

Sameen finally managed to land a blow on the woman’s sword arm, and followed through swiftly to knock the blade from her hand. With the fairy now the one with a sword at her throat, Sameen growled, “Because I slew a dragon today, and I’m hungry.”

To Sameen’s surprise, the fairy laughed. “A dragon?”

“Yeah, a dragon. What, are you pissed at me about that, too?”

“Of course not. Dragons are the enemies of the Fae. We hate them.”

Sameen rolled her eyes. “Of course.”

“You’re good,” the fairy said, eyeing Sameen’s blade, then sliding her gaze upward. “I like it.”

“Sure. Now if I let you go, will you let me eat this damn bird in peace, or am I going to have to kill you, too?”

The fairy shrugged. “You may do as you please. Only--” she whispered, opening her eyes wide, “ _ promise you won’t do it again _ ?” Then she winked.

“Got it,” Sameen said, eyeing the fairy sideways as she slowly backed away, sword still raised.

The fairy retrieved her own sword, smirking as Sameen tensed. She sheathed it, then dropped to the ground, leaning back on her hands. “Well?”

“Well what?”

“Well, are you going to cook it, or are you so hungry you were just going to eat it  _ raw _ ?”

“I was kind of planning on taking it out of your precious woods first.”

“Mm, no, if you try that we’ll have to fight again. I don’t want that. Do you want that?”

Sameen realized that a small cookfire had appeared on the bare earth in front of the fairy, and that a tiny, grouse-sized roasting spit was already above it.

“Cook your bird, Sameen.”

Sameen stared at her. “Yeah. Okay.”

The fairy followed Sameen’s movements as she cleaned and dressed the grouse, a smirk still playing on her lips. “You haven’t asked me my name,” she sighed after a while.

“Well you’ll only lie, right,” said Sameen. “If you told me your real name, I could make you do my bidding or whatever.”

“Maybe I’d like to do your bidding.”

“Uh.”

“Call me Root. It’s not my real name. Only part of it.”

“Sure.”

When the grouse was cooked, Sameen paused before putting the first bite to her lips. “If I eat this, will I be stuck here forever?”

Root shook her head. “That’s only if you eat  _ my  _ food, Sameen.”

“Just checking.” Sameen tore into the grouse with relish. The fairy just watched her. When she was done, and feeling less ready to tear the arms off anything near her, she stood, wiping grouse grease off on her breeches. “So,” she said. “It was uh, nice meeting you. Root. Thanks for the fire, and the not killing me.”

The fairy rose, and moved into Sameen’s space.

“Yet.” Root gazed down at Sameen’s face. She was tall. She was uncomfortably tall.

Root placed a hand on Sameen’s waist and Sameen’s hand went to the grip of her sword, but the fairy just reached past and plucked a rose from the bushes behind her. She held it between them for a moment, the petals just brushing Sameen’s chin. Still holding her gaze, Root tucked the flower into a fastening of Sameen's coat, the red burning dark against the green. “You should visit me again sometime,” she said with a wide, dangerous smile.

Sameen couldn’t look away. “Sure,” she said.

Root stepped back, giving her space to pass. “Safe travels, Sameen.”

“Yeah,” Sameen said, raising her hand in an awkward, half-hearted wave. “Sure.”

Back at the edge of the forest, the sun was still above the horizon, but only just. She wouldn’t make it back to the castle until well past dark. “What the hell was that, huh?” Sameen asked her horse as she untied it. “How come you let me go in there? Useless.” The soft scent of the rose hung in the air the whole way home.

 

“You arrived late last night. I hope the dragon wasn’t more trouble than you expected.”

“Shut up, John.” Sameen had awoken more confused than the night before, and didn’t want any sass from her fellow knights before she’d even finished breakfast.

“So it  _ was  _ worse than you expected,” chimed in Lionel from John’s other side.

“Ughhhhhhh.” Sameen shoveled sausage into her mouth. “Dragon was fine,” she grumbled between bites. “Piece of cake. Just had to take a detour through Carterhaugh on my way back.”

“Carterhaugh?” said Joss. “For what possible reason did you need to go through Carterhaugh?”

Sameen shrugged. “Food.”

“Of course,” said Lionel. “What else.”

“Would you jerks quit looking at me like that?” Sameen demanded. “I made it out, okay? I only met one fairy and it didn’t kill me, so, I’m fine. Everything’s fine.”

“You met a fairy? Sameen!” Joss gave her the same look Sameen had seen her use on her son when the kid got caught drawing dicks on the stables. “What was it like?”

“Weird, like really weird. Not bad with a sword. Kinda hot.”

John raised his eyebrows. “Was he now.”

“She,” Sameen corrected. “Yyyep.”

Lionel choked on his ale as John patted his back. “Easy there, friend.”

“I hate all of you, you know that? All of you.”

“Aw, no you don’t,” said Joss.

“Oh yes I do. I’d hate you less if you let me eat breakfast in peace though.”

“You heard the woman, Lionel,” said John. “Leave her alone.”

“I’m going to kill you someday,” said Sameen.

“I know,” John sighed.

“Just a matter of time.”

“I know.”

It was two months before Sameen’s duties brought her back near Carterhaugh, during which time she had tried and failed to forget her encounter with the fairy. It was Bishop again, a bad luck town if there ever was one--this time the rabid wolves she’d heard about on her last quest had come pouring out of the forest at night to race through the streets of town and ravage the livestock in the fields. Even the town’s best hunters had failed to stop them coming for a week now. When they came to supplicate for aid, Sameen volunteered before she had time to think. Joss, John, and Lionel all turned to give her looks. Even the king looked a little astonished, and Harold didn’t even know about her little "detour." At least, Sameen hoped he didn’t. She packed her things and booked it northward before anyone could tell her to either sit this one out or bring a chaperone.

As night fell in Bishop, Sameen thought she could have used the backup. “Poured,” the Bishop hunters had said of the wolves, and she’d thought they were exaggerating--provincial yokels who didn’t know the meaning of danger. She’d rolled her eyes when they insisted on boarding up every door in town and taking to the rooftops to watch for the beasts’ arrival. Seeing the dark shadows descending on the town, she took it all back. The wolves ran slobbering through the streets in a flood of matted hair and sharp teeth, their howls more like shrieks.

Sameen shot arrow after arrow into the pack, but the wolves seemed to take no harm from them. Once all had passed her station, she leapt down the side of the building and released her horse from where she’d hidden it in an adjoining side yard, riding it after the pack toward the fields.

The sheep scattered before the oncoming beasts, screaming as the wolves pursued them across the moor. Sameen continued to fire at the wolves in her path, and they continued to take no notice. She chased one of them towards a stone wall at one end of the fields, drawing her sword and preparing to try a new tactic. The wolf spun around to snap and growl at her horse, who had remained steady in the face of dragon fire only two weeks ago, but now reared and squealed, leaving Sameen only barely clinging on, unable to wield her sword. The wolf stalked closer and closer, until it stopped stock still, ears perking at some unheard sound. After a moment’s pause, it left Sameen and veered off toward the woods of Carterhaugh.

Sameen stared into the darkness, and saw a tall figure with dark, flowing hair on the edge of the wood. “Oh hell no,” she said, stringing her last arrow to her bow and letting it fly. Root leaned a little to the side, and the arrow breezed by her ear, landing lamely in the undergrowth somewhere behind her. As far off as she was, Sameen could swear the fairy was grinning.

Fuming, Sameen turned her horse back toward the village. The wolves were gone.

 

Angry she had failed the people of Bishop, the next morning Sameen gallantly offered to help them round up the scattered sheep. All day she and the villagers rode through the moors, herding panicked animals back nearer the town. After such an overwhelming attack, Sameen was sure they would be finding more sheep dead than alive. The whole day, though, she saw not a single carcass.

“Was it like this the other times?” she asked. “Did the wolves ever kill any of them?”

“Oh, aye,” shuddered one of her companions. “I saw them take one down. Fearsome sight.”

“Any idea how many? How many carcasses have you found?”

“Oh, but they don’t leave carcasses, Lady Sameen. Drag them straight back into that horrid wood with them, don’t they?”

Sameen frowned deeper. “What for? Wolves usually eat their kill right where they are. Why would they go to the trouble of taking them into Carterhaugh?”

Her companion shushed her, then looked embarrassed. “We try not to say that name aloud,” he explained. “Bad luck.”

“You seem to have enough of it anyway,” Sameen answered. “I’m uh, sorry. I’ll try to remember.”

“Well, anyway, I don’t think they eat them. You ask me, I think they’re taking them to the Fairy Court. They take them to the Queen of the Wood. The wolves belong to her.”

Sameen shot an angry look at the dark wood on the horizon. “How much do you know about the fairies in there.”

“Oh, everyone knows all about the fairies in the Wood! They--”

“Yeah. How much do you really know, though.”

“Ah. A little. I’ve heard things. I was in the search party for the missing girls when I was a young lad. Lived next door to little Hanna. We knew the fairies took her and the Groves girl, and Hanna's poor mother did all she could to learn more about them, see if she could find a way to get her daughter back. She didn’t, of course. You never get anything back the fairies take.”

“What do you know about the Fairy Queen?”

“No more than any mortal. As the tales go, she has a heart of ice, and cruel mind. They say she herself is a vassal of the Devil. Those who claim to have seen her say she's a tall, terrible-looking woman. Dark hair.”

Sameen felt a chill. “Do you know her name? Does she go by anything but ‘Queen?’”

“Not to my knowledge, my lady.”

“Have you ever heard the name ‘Root?’”

“Root?” the man asked. “Aye, I’ve heard tales of Root. They say she’s the most beloved of the Queen’s knights--almost as deadly as her mistress. Where did you hear the name?”

Sameen’s eyes hardened, and she urged her horse into a trot towards Bishop. “Couldn’t say.”

 

Sameen waited for darkness in Bishop once more, but to the surprise of all, the only sounds they heard were night insects; the only shapes moving in the dark were bats, and the restless villagers shifting at their posts. "Perhaps it's your presence, my lady," whispered Sameen's rooftop neighbor after the church bells struck the first hour of morning. "Perhaps they rightly fear a true knight of the realm."

Sameen scoffed at this theory. The wolves clearly had no more reason to fear her than Bishop's own archers. She could hazard a guess at the true reason, but the man would like it even less than she did. Recalling Harold's frequent request that she present a more friendly face of the capital to his subjects, Sameen contorted her features into something she hoped resembled a confident smile. "Yes," she said. "Something like that. Definitely."

At dawn, Sameen left the village as quickly as possible, telling the villagers to send for her at the castle if the wolves reappeared.

 

"ROOT," Sameen yelled into the forest. "Get out here right now, I know you're lurking around somewhere!"

"Yes, dear?" Root poked her head around from behind a tree to Sameen's right. The delighted smirk on her face gave Sameen a confusing flutter of charm and horror.

"What the hell was that?" she asked, gesturing back towards the village.

"I don't know what you're talking about," said Root.

Sameen glared.

"Oh, you mean that thing with the wolves?"

"Yes, that thing with the terrorizing an innocent village for a week straight."

Root's smile faltered. "No one is truly innocent, you know. They're full of as much blood and secrets as you and I. But no one was hurt," she added dismissively. "Well, just a few sheep."

"What did you do it for?"

Root shrugged. "Sometimes the Queen tires of game, and asks me to bring her something new. Trust me, you don't want to know what she eats when she tires of mutton."

Sameen shook her head. "Why'd you  _ do  _ it."

"You never came back," she pouted, approaching her. "I  _ had  _ to get your attention somehow."

Sameen stared up at her. "Yeah," she said. "That's what I thought."

Root reached out and brushed a strand of hair behind Sameen's ear. "So do I?"

"What," Sameen said, swallowing. "Have my attention?"

Root grinned. "Yes," she said. "That's what I thought."

  
  


The day after Sameen returned, Joss caught her on the practice field and took her aside. “You’ve been back to Carterhaugh, haven’t you?”

“So?”

“So if Harold finds out, he’ll kill you!”

“No he won’t,” Sameen scoffed.

“Fine, he won’t. But the fairies will. They’re  _ dangerous _ , Sameen. You may think this one is your special friend, but you have no idea what she’ll do to you.”

_Isn’t that kind of the point,_ Sameen thought. But aloud she only said, “I told you, it’s fine.

“It’s none of my business, but I see you sometimes, you look like you’ve got a death-wish.”

Sameen rolled her eyes. “It’s not like that.”

“Fine. I’m just telling you to be careful, is all. We need you. There’s not a lot that’s worth throwing your life away for, and playing chicken with a fairy definitely isn’t one of them.”

“Thanks. Good pep talk.” Sameen bailed before she had to look at Joss’s disappointed mom face anymore.

 

 

The third time Sameen went to Carterhaugh, there were no monsters in Bishop. She just went.

“Did you put a love spell on me? These roses, are they--doing something?”

Root laughed. “A love spell? Sameen, are you saying you’re in love with me?”

“…No.”

“Then I can’t have put a love spell on you, can I?”

 

 

The fourth time Sameen went to Carterhaugh, she did some research first. The things she learned cast a blacker darkness over the idea of Carterhaugh, Root, and fairies, and Sameen wanted to talk about it the second she entered the Wood, but then Root was kissing her before Sameen could get a word out, and it was some time before Sameen could remember she had ever learned anything except that Root was stupid beautiful and that fairy magic could conjure more exciting things than cookfires.

In the golden light of late afternoon, Root lay curled with her head in Sameen’s lap, and Sameen could have believed her to be sleeping, except that she kept smiling every time Sameen brushed her fingers through Root’s long hair. Sameen had never imagined herself to be an affectionate person, but Root awoke in her-- _ not  _ the L-word, but a kind of protectiveness, an incongruous feeling to have toward a fairy, but then--

“Root.”

“Sam.” Root smiled wider, her eyes fluttering open as she turned to look up.

“I went to Bishop again yesterday.”

Root stiffened, evidently sensing that something had changed.

“They have this story, about two girls who died in these woods.”

Root pulled away and sat up, turning away from Sameen.

“The body of one was never recovered. That was you, wasn’t it. You’re Samantha Groves.”

“It’s Root now.”

"Hey." Sameen grabbed Root's shoulder, and pulled her back to face her again. "Tell me about it. What happened to you?"

Root looked fearful and uncertain. It was a disturbing sight. She glanced about, then took Sameen's hand in hers. She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again. She met Sameen's eyes for a long moment, searching, then dropped her gaze. At last, she shifted, and tucked herself close to Sameen’s side, curling her hands around Sameen’s arm, and dropping her head to her shoulder. Before Sameen could recover from her shock at this display of vulnerability, Root began to speak.

"They never looked for me. They only looked for Hanna. Because her father was a cordwainer and all I had was a town drunk for a mother. We weren't--we weren't supposed to be friends. We weren't supposed to play in the woods. We weren't a lot of things."

Sameen placed her hand on Root's thigh, and stroked softly with her thumb.

"We weren't supposed to go near the Queen's rose garden. One of her knights caught us, and brought us to her. She feigned forgiveness at first. She said we were only children after all, and no harm done. Still, there must always be consequences. Hanna began to cry, and I begged the Queen to let her go, and punish only me. It was my fault--I was the one who brought Hanna to the woods. I was the one who wanted the roses. Hanna was innocent.

"'That's a pretty thought,' the Queen said. She came down from her throne and knelt in front of me, looking me right in the eye. She told me she would make me a deal. Hanna could go free, so long as I remained behind and pledged to serve the Queen for all my life. 'It won't even be a punishment,' she told me. 'I will raise you as if you were my own child, and I will give you powers beyond mortal imagination. But--' she said, 'you will never see your friend again. Can you do that?'

"I started to cry too, at the thought of losing Hanna, but I thought I knew what I had to do. I told the Queen yes, and gave her my pledge. Fairies have a--keen, but cruel sense of honor. The Queen was true to her word. She let Hanna go.

"When our neighbors came looking, the Queen made sure they found her. Hanna ran straight to their arms, not knowing the Queen had laid a spell on her, so that all the villagers saw was a vicious wolf, tearing toward them through the trees. Only when they'd shot her full of arrows did they see her true shape." Root turned her face into Sameen’s shoulder, and Sameen could feel her tears through her sleeve. "I don't know what they told her family."

Sameen searched for something to say. “I’m sorry,”  she said eventually. When Root said no more, Sameen finally asked, "Why didn't you tell me you were human?"

"Because I'm not," said Root. "The Queen owns all of me, root and branch. She made me one of her own. And I have to say, after a while, it didn't seem so bad. It's not like anyone in Bishop cared for me. And magic is--fun. But it doesn't matter whether I like it or not. She owns my soul."

Sameen's hand tightened briefly on Root's leg. "I don't believe that."

Root shrugged a little. "It doesn't matter whether you believe it."

"But can't you do something? I mean what happens if you just leave?"

"I can't leave!" said Root. "I can't do anything." She sat up, wiping her eyes. "She'll never let me go, because she needs me."

"For what? Guarding her roses? I mean, can't someone else?"

Root shook her head. "Her tithe. Every twelve years, she meets the Devil at midnight on Halloween at the crossroads of Miles Cross, where she pays a tithe to Hell. That's what she wanted me for, why she spared me instead of having me killed like Hanna. She needed to make a new tithe. My time is up."

Sameen stared. "Okay. So. How do we stop it?"

Root laughed a little. "We?"

Sameen reached out and took her hand. "Yeah. Idiot."

Root breathed, in and out. "I still can't do anything. Her control of me is complete." She glanced over, and met Sameen's eyes for the first time since beginning her story. "But, someone else could, maybe. Someone who cared. Someone brave. There's a way." Root smiled brokenly, glancing down again. “When I first came here, I used to dream about a brave knight coming to rescue me, to take me home. I gave up on that pretty quick.”

“Root." Sameen squeezed the woman's hand.

“Will you be my brave knight, Sameen?”

 

 

The church bells of Bishop rang eleven o'clock as Sameen passed by on the high road, riding on to Miles Cross. The nearer she came to the forest, the wilder and colder blew the wind. When she drew near the crossroads, Sameen veered off south to a stand of unenchanted trees about half a mile off. There she tethered her horse, hoping he would go unnoticed by the Fairy Court. She grabbed her pack, and wrapping her cloak tightly around her against the whipping wind, began the walk to the crossroads alone.

At Miles Cross itself, the world was suddenly, eerily, still and silent, as if someone had just shut and bolted a door on the surrounding moor. It took a moment for Sameen to realize that there was sound in the quiet after all--a disquieting ringing of bells in pitches that clashed and shifted unnaturally. Beneath that, the thumping steps of many horses.

Sameen took in the sound dispassionately, peering into the darkness in its direction. The Court was not yet visible, and so she sat down on the cold ground and prepared to wait.

In a few moments, the wind began to rise again, and with it the eerie bells rang louder and louder, drowning the Bishop church bells as they struck a quarter to midnight. Within minutes, the black horses were upon her, their riders occasionally glancing scornfully down at Sameen before turning their gaze back to their dread destination. Then came the brown horses, their riders passing in the same way. After what seemed like an age, there came two horses so white they seemed to glow in the moonlight. For a moment, Sameen found herself entranced by the sight of the Fairy Queen herself, who rode one horse in a dress of white, patterns of leaves and flowers stitched into it with beads of tiny white stones.

Just beside the Queen, though, was Root, on a white horse of her own and dressed head to toe in white raiment--boots, gloves, even the plate of her armor looked like it was made of pearl. Root's face was nearly as pale as her armor, and uncharacteristically stiff and ghostly. She stared unfocused into the air before her, never turning to notice Sameen where she crouched at the roadside. Closer and closer she and the Queen came to Sameen, and as their horses took their first steps across the far edge of the crossroad, Sameen muttered "Okay, bitch, let's do this."

Uncertain whether she even meant Root or the Queen, Sameen stood abruptly and rushed forward, throwing herself at Root's left leg and dragging her from the saddle. Root screamed as she came down, startling Sameen, but remembering Root's instructions, she held on, even as Root's weight knocked her to the ground, keeping her arms tightly circled around the other woman's waist while Root continued to scream and claw at the earth as if trying to crawl away.

The Fairy Queen raised her hand, and the Court came to a halt. Her gaze slid down to Sameen, and then her head and then body followed. "What," she said with a voice as cold and quiet as stone, "do you suppose to do with my loyal knight?"

"I don't know," Sameen yelled over Root's screams. "What were you going to do with her? Send her to Hell? Doesn't seem like a nice way to treat your loyal knight."

"Root goes where I tell her, because she loves me. Look how she desires to escape your weak human arms. You cannot keep her from me. You cannot keep her from her duty."

"Working so far," Sameen grunted.

"Is it?" said the Queen, and then Sameen nearly lost her grip, as the woman in her arms grew into an enormous, hairy bear. She could no longer fit her arms around the creature, and was forced to grip its fur tight in her fists. Root-the-Bear reared up on its hind legs, roaring, and Sameen took the opportunity to wrap her legs around its middle. The bear threw its massive clawed front paws over its shoulders one at a time, struggling to reach the woman pulling at the fur of its back. Discovering this was no use, it went for the legs around its middle instead, and Sameen winced as she felt blood gushing from her calves. Still, she held tight.

"That all you got?" she demanded, inwardly calculating how long she could survive her current rate of blood loss.

The Queen snapped her fingers, and Sameen's neck was suddenly being throttled by a 9-foot snake. Closing her hands down around her smooth scales before Root-the-Snake could slip through her fingers, Sameen laughed, though it ended abruptly in a choke. "Something you might not know about me," she hoarsed at the Queen, as the Bishop church bells began to toll the hour. "I kind of enjoy this sort of thing."

The Queen shrieked with frustration and snapped her fingers again.

The snake shrank, and shrank, and Sameen chased her with her hands, and then her hands were burning.

_ Whatever she turns me into,  _ Root had said,  _ don't be afraid. I'll never really hurt you. You'll be safe with me. _

"Safe," Sameen repeated to herself now, as she took deep breaths. Root-the-Burning-Coal had burned through her skin and she could no longer even feel the pain. The struggle was to hold tight in her hands a thing she could not even feel. "I'm safe."

"You're not safe," the Queen said. "You're going to die. My Root is killing you as you speak. Wouldn't you rather send her where she belongs? Wouldn't you rather send her to Hell?"

"She's not," Sameen gasped, feeling her body begin to shut down.

"Oh yes, she is," the Queen grinned, now appearing more delighted with the way things were going. "She's killing you."

"Ugh, she's  _ always  _ killing me," said Sameen. The clock struck eleven. "I was going to say--she's not  _ yours _ ."

The clock struck twelve.

The coal grew, and cooled in Sameen's newly-healed hands, and then she was holding her Root again, only now she was--distressingly--naked. Sameen slid Root to the ground, then pulled her cloak from around her shoulders and threw it over Root's shivering body.

"How dare you how  _ dare you _ " the Fairy Queen screamed at Sameen. "You have taken my knight you have taken my  _ tithe _ . I should--"

"You should  _ what _ ," said Sameen, staring up at the Queen and feeling nothing but a dangerous mix of exhaustion and anger. "What?"

"I should--"

"You'll do  _ nothing _ ," said Root, weakly, but with a fierce anger, rising slightly and clutching Sameen's cloak about her. "She  _ won  _ me and you'll do nothing. You have no power over either of us and now you must face the Devil empty handed."

"You," said the Queen, "If I had known what a false heart you had I should have turned you into a brute animal like your stupid friend. I should have  _ eaten  _ that false heart and let the Devil take the rest of you."

"You'll have to find him another gift then," said Root, smiling. "Here he comes."

 

The wind started up and the night grew darker and darker, as if something was turning off the stars. Root slid back against Sameen, and instinctively the knight put her arms around her again, gentle this time. For all her bravado, Root herself had gone stiff with fear. The fairy horses began to stamp, their riders shifting in their saddles and looking anxiously around. The darkness grew complete, and the air was suddenly filled with screams. When the darkness lifted, Sameen and Root were alone.

Sameen squeezed her just a bit. “I've still got you," she said, lips close to Root's temple. "You’re safe. I’m here.”

At last, Root loosened her grip. “It’s cold.”

Sameen laughed and pulled Root to her feet, then tossed her the clothes and boots from the saddlebag. Once Root was dressed, Sameen gave her a hand up into the saddle, and then swung up behind her.

Root sighed and leaned back against her, weary eyes drifting closed. “Are we going home?” she murmured.

Sameen smiled in the darkness. “Yeah. We’re going home.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> There's no good reason for this fic to exist except that I just really love Tam Lin and wanted a gay version. I'm always a sucker for fairy tales where the lady gets to save the dude! (Or in my version, the other lady :P) There's a zillion versions of the ballad, but my two favorites are [Tricky Pixie's cover](http://music.trickypixie.com/track/tam-lin), which is the most complete version I've heard recorded and which does a great job of capturing the spookiness of the tale, and [Anaïs Mitchell & Jefferson Hamer's duet](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3yTEUnyYDA), which is super pretty and has the sauciest version of Janet's response to her father when he asks who knocked her up, but alas, completely leaves out the creepy Fairy Queen.
> 
> Obviously I took a lot of liberties, most for self-evident reasons, not least of which is that Shaw would never risk her life to pick a flower for the Drama of it (or even to maybe bang a hot fairy knight) but she 100% definitely would risk her life for a good meal if she was hungry.


End file.
